9:30 AM TEXAS TIME:
After the critical and box office success of this Summer’s THE DARK KNIGHT, another Bat-Film is pretty much a no-brainer. Warner Bros. has said publicly that a third one is on their radar and an offer has been extended to director Chris Nolan and the team behind BATMAN BEGINS and TDK. What we don’t know is whether or not Nolan will return for a third film as the director has been silent for the last two months since he stopped doing press for TDK. However…

Could a Nolan-helmed BATMAN 3 be further along than we know? Possibly.

Over the last several weeks, I’ve been hearing that very early pre-production on what will ultimately be the third Nolan BATMAN is about to begin. What’s interesting is that info seems to be originating from folks who worked on TDK behind the scenes -- set builders, stuntmen, film crew, etc. -- in Chicago. I have no proof to offer at this time other than first and secondhand accounts from various individuals who are part of that aforementioned group.

So how far along is the next Bat-Flick? My guess is not very far at all. I believe that writers David Goyer and Jonah Nolan both have an idea of what they’d like to do, but there certainly isn’t a screenplay yet. Goyer himself said (at the TDK press junket in June ‘08) that Chris Nolan didn’t contact him about doing another one until three months after BATMAN BEGINS. Going by that timeline, perhaps “Team Nolan” will start discussing a sequel this October. And remember, we didn’t get the official word on THE DARK KNIGHT until July of 2006 -- a full year after BATMAN BEGINS’ run in theaters.

As far as this buzz coming from former TDK crew members, there’s probably something to this as you can’t hire these guys at the very last minute. If sets need to be built and other miscellaneous pre-preproduction projects need to get done, I suspect that readying these things a year and a half/two years in advance is NOT out of the question.